Friday, 9 November 2012

Plague Inc Reviewed.

Well today, after a week of 'playing' Plague Inc in class, most students had 2-3 periods of gametime and had enough of an understanding of the concept behind the game to have the discussion I have been heading for since we began.

Below is the audio recording of the lesson (it goes for just over 30mins), slightly edited to remove silences and interruptions but here is a quick summary for those who don't have the time to listen to the whole thing.

- Students could see the connection between the 'strategy' they used, the selective pressures and therefore evolution.

- Students didn't 'learn' anything new, but it did help reinforce what we had already talked about and improved their understanding.

- Students felt that the time spent was worthwhile in terms of their learning.

- Being a 'real' game made it more interesting than a 'learning environment' like my cell map in MinecraftEdu.

- Coming soon to my Biology class: Pocket Frogs to discuss inheritance.



Feel free to comment below, I would be very interested in any feedback on the lesson audio and 'teachable moments' I may have missed.
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4 comments:

  1. itmadesimple14 November 2012 at 22:59

    Great to see you using Plague Inc with your students and the structure you have developed - and even better that you have recorded the session with students fantastic (although the audio is really low with the kids which makes me :-( ).

    I would have loved to have seen the students develop a response of some sort using screen captures from their devices so I could track the strategies that they were planning on using and the variation they made with repeated games at what point in the time and what results it had on the final outcome.

    I really like the discussion around getting DNA points and managing the evolution and if we could apply the same thinking to the development of our race. Some great divergent ideas that could grow from this.

    Great work...

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  2. Kaj Sotala2 April 2013 at 03:09

    Great use of gaming in education! My compliments. If you don't mind a bit of self-promotion, I was sufficiently impressed to link to this post in two articles of my own.

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    Replies
    1. EduElfie15 April 2013 at 19:41

      Thanks for you comments, and thanks for linking me in those two articles. I hope you continue with your plans to bring more mainstream games into education.

      Delete
    2. Kaj Sotala25 April 2013 at 04:54

      Thank you! I will do my best, and I hope that you'll continue with your own efforts as well. :)

      Delete

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